Trump castigated for missing WWI event due to rain

U.S. President Donald Trump is facing backlash from both sides of the Atlantic after he canceled a trip to an American cemetery and World War I memorial in northern France Saturday due to bad weather.

The visit was part of a weekend of Armistice centenary commemorations, which culminated in a ceremony at the Arc de Triomphe Sunday morning involving scores of world leaders, including Trump. World War I claimed just over 40 million casualties.

The backlash against Trump started stateside and followed the president into Europe, where both Conservative and Labour U.K. ministers united in swiping at the U.S. commander-in-chief.

Among the critics was wartime British leader Winston Churchill’s grandson, Nicholas Soames, who took to Twitter to say “they died with their face to the foe and that pathetic inadequate @realDonaldTrump couldn’t even defy the weather to pay his respects to The Fallen.”

The White House announced on Saturday that Trump would no longer visit the Aisne-Marne American Cemetery in Belleau, which is around 80 kilometers from where he and First Lady Melania Trump were staying in Paris.

World leaders, during the ceremony in Paris | Ludovic Marin/AFP via Getty Images

The plans were canceled after fog and steady rain prevented Trump’s helicopter from flying to the cemetery with the trip cancelled due to “scheduling and logistical difficulties caused by the weather,” an spokesperson said. Chief of staff John Kelly stepped in on the president’s behalf to visit the site.

Former White House aide Ben Rhodes was scornful of that explanation. "I helped plan all of President Obama’s trips for 8 years. There is always a rain option. Always," he wrote on Twitter.

The decision triggered scorn from U.K. Defense Minister Tobias Ellwood, who told Sky News that “it’s so important that we reflect correctly on what sacrifice was made and that needs to be done at every level, including by the commander-in-chief of the United States forces.”

Labour’s shadow defense secretary, Nia Griffith, went further, saying: “I was absolutely horrified quite frankly, when you think of the sacrifice people made, and I think people up and down the country and across Europe, whatever their political views, do think it’s very, very important that we commemorate what happened and I think people were really taken aback by that.”

Former army officer and Tory MP Tom Tugendhat said: “I don’t remember operations being cancelled when it rained, I don’t remember them being cancelled for the cold, I don’t remember us refusing to soldier because the weather was inclement."

French President Emmanuel Macron stopped short of criticizing Trump. But Macron did take advantage of his speech today under the Arc de Triomphe in the French capital to say: “Nationalism is inherently treasonous.”

“Patriotism is the antithesis of nationalism,” he added. “In saying ‘our interests first, and forget the others,’ we lose the most important part of the nation: its moral values.”